The Matara centre is a unique place to be married. Set in 28 acres of gardens and parkland, the central point of Matara is Kingscote House, an elegant Regency house. It was also the home of Katharine Kingscote, who married Edward Jenner, the scientist who developed a vaccine against smallpox. The romantic story of Katherine Kingscote and Edward Jenner is wonderfully appropriate, an experiment brought the couple together. On September 2nd 1784, Jenner launched a hydrogen-filled balloon from Berkeley Castle, after ten miles, the balloon came down close to Kingscote Park House. Jenner met Katherine Kingscote when he came to collect the balloon and they fell in love, they married at Kingscote Church on March 6, 1788 and lived in the Regency house on the estate. My clients on this occasion at the Matara were Jane and Michael, I know they won’t mind me saying that they are a mature couple, but madly in love with each other. Jane was stunning and reminded me so much of Grace Kelly, she was incredibly warm and this radiated from her throughout the day. Jane and Michael’s children played an important role too, with Michael’s son acting as best man and Jane’s son walking her down the aisle, all children, now grown up, were a credit to their parents. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t joining in on the fun, raining on and off all day, at times pretty heavy, but the Matara centre put on a wonderful show and this was an amazing wedding to be part of, a real pleasure for me.

On seeing her pictures Jane wrote this to me:

“David, I just wanted to say : Oh my God, simply out of this world, beautiful, amazing, I have no more words to describe the photographs. What you’ve captured, the emotion, the feeling, the essence of everyone’s personality, the mood, everything! Mike and I were tearful, the children watched it with us, in the dark, and we were all mesmerised. All I can say is thank you, thank you, amazing! You were simply fantastic and we shall always be eternally grateful to you.”